THE LAST RIVER MILE

Thoughts near the take-out.

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GEOFF POSEGATE

Retired United Methodist pastor and leadership coach.

  • THE “ENEMY WITHIN”

    “The fastest, easiest way to galvanize people together is to give them something to hate.” – Bill Posegate (among others)

    My dad was a veteran, who loved God and who loved his country. (In that order, with the latter answerable to the former.) He grew up in the shadow of the Second World War, and he believed in the power of a free democracy to withstand unchecked authoritarianism. From him I learned to value a society in which differing opinions are not only accepted, but expected. Dad liked the idea of political opponents fiercely defending their views, but respecting each other as “worthy adversaries.”

    One thing my late father would not tolerate is opposing parties labeling each other as “the enemy within.” He would have pointed out to me how many totalitarian regimes in history have gained popular power by pinpointing a particular group or viewpoint as “the enemy within.” To be sure, any nation has real threats within its borders, bent on that nation’s downfall. But I fear the line is blurring between that small number, and the vast number of citizens who love the United States of America but who do not agree with an administration at any given point in history. Political opposition and “enemy of the nation” have become interchangeable. That, my father pointed out, is dangerous territory.

    Those of us who have chosen to be Jesus-followers have forfeited the right to demonize opposition. We are under the mandate of Matthew 5:43-44. Hard as this is, we have neighbors to love more than we have enemies to defeat.

    Any human movement built on vanquishing enemies is doomed to die. Pick any empire on earth built on force at any point in history: The Persian Empire, the Roman Empire, the Han Dynasty, the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottomans, the Aztecs, the British Empire, the Third Reich, etc., etc. Where are they all now? They have drifted off into the increasingly waning dust of historical record. But the empire built on love, the empire forgiving the crucifiers, the empire that doggedly sees every human being as worthy of the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of the God’s own Son refuses to die.

    That doesn’t happen by labeling opponents as “the enemy within.”

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • MASS SHOOTINGS AS A SYMPTOM

    If I’m on a canoe float on a river and my canoe keeps turning over, that’s a symptom that something is wrong. I’m not maintaining balance in the vessel, weight in the canoe is poorly distributed, I’m not leaning correctly in turns, the person in the bow and I are not in sync, I’m guiding us into the “V” in the rapids… something or some combination of factors is working against a good float. The last thing I want to do is to just ignore that it keeps happening, put up with it, and go from one swamping to another.

    In the health of an individual human being, if a symptom persists or increases in severity or frequency, to ignore it, to just endure it, or to dismiss it is denial. Denial of symptoms usually doesn’t end well.

    Think of the massive prevalence of gun violence of all kinds and mass shootings in particular as a symptom in the organism which is our great nation. Something is terribly wrong. In schools, stores, churches, public settings, political rallies, concerts…whatever the virus is, it is spreading. It seems to me that all of us are participating in a kind of denial. We respond to every event the same way. There’s a flurry of outrage, sadness, anger, blaming, finger-pointing, polarized presumption of causation, and demands for action (from someone other than us). Then we settled back into business as usual until the next one happens. Our programmed response follows a predictable trajectory, becomes in fact a way to avoid doing anything, and changes nothing. How is that not having a symptom and in effect denying it? We wouldn’t practice such denial on a canoe float. We shouldn’t engage in such denial with a person’s health. Why are we willing to practice denial with innocent people, including our own children and grandchildren?

    I sure don’t know how to address this deadly symptom. But somehow we need to work together (yes; right and left, conservative and progressive, TOGETHER), to focus on the complexity that is causing it and to actually address it. What we’re doing now, or actually not doing, is not working. The overworked cliche is nonetheless true – insanity is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results.

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • ENOUGH?

    Think about how much of American life depends on the presumption of “not enough.”

    Marketing has to convince each of us that we must correct the “not enough” in our lives. You don’t have enough money. Your car isn’t new enough. Your house isn’t big enough. You don’t have enough stuff. Your bandwidth isn’t strong enough. You haven’t experienced enough. You haven’t scrolled on your phone enough. And that phone isn’t current enough. If we suddenly, magically had enough, economies would crash.

    “Not enough” has driven much of human history. Rulers and governments lived in fear of not exercising enough power. Nations and tribes scrambled for enough resources and space. If another kingdom had more than yours, then yours had “not enough”, and no price tag of human life was too high to pay to achieve enough.

    “Not enough” surrounds and measures every human being. You’re not smart enough, successful enough, pretty enough, popular enough, influential enough. Ask most people whatever their “enough” is and they don’t feel that they have it.

    Even faith can be infected with the “not enough” virus. Your faith isn’t strong enough. You’re not praying hard enough or often enough. You don’t go to church enough. You’re not saved enough. You don’t act religious enough. No wonder the number of people self-reporting no religious affiliation continues to skyrocket in this country. Religion becomes just one more thing telling us that we’re not enough.

    The great Franciscan thinker and author, Richard Rohr, suggests that the truly radical nature of the good news of Jesus the Christ is this: We have been declared enough. Simply through the enormity of the unimaginable love of the God who breathed life into each of us, we are enough. Enough is not something we can earn, deserve, or anticipate. It is given us. Jesus the crucified and risen is the embodiment of God’s power over all that would define any of us as not enough.

    Is it any wonder that the majority of those drawn in wonder to Jesus in the first century were those who had been told all their lives that they were “not enough” by the hierarchies that ruled and defined them? No wonder Jesus was (is) so dangerous.

    What would it be like if the good you do or could do wasn’t about trying to overcome not being enough, but rather was done precisely because you ARE enough? How would your life change if you truly believed that God in Christ has gifted you and everyone around you with being enough?

    I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.

  • The Last Mile Paddling

    I went on my first canoe float trip on an Ozark Missouri stream at twelve years old, in 1965. That started a love affair with canoeing and kayaking that has lasted sixty years. That first float covered about 90 miles on the Current River. On my very first day in a canoe on a river our trained paddling group covered thirty-two miles. (I have NEVER canoed that much in one day since!)

    Experienced floaters in my region will recognize stream names like the Current, Jack’s Fork, the North Fork of the White River, the Spring River, The Meramec, Huzzah Creek, the Courtois (pronounce “Cut-away” by canoeists, for some reason), the Big Piney, the Little Piney, the Gasconade, and others. I’ve been on them all. Most of my floats have been day trips, with a few overnighters. Generally, my float trips have covered anywhere from five-to-seven miles up to fifteen miles or so in a day. As I age, the length of time on the water leans shorter.

    In my experience, the last mile or so of a canoe trip creates an interesting phenomenon. Most paddlers get tired by that point, and they’re ready to call it a day. Simply put, the last mile is the longest. It’s as if time warps and slows, or geographic distance elongates. To be honest, I’m tempted (if I’m REALLY tired) to wonder if we’ve floated into some kind of Twilight Zone on a trip that will never end. And then the takeout landmark comes in sight around the next bend in the river. At that point I feel an odd mix of relief and sadness; relief that I can put down the paddle and rest, but sadness that another great day on a river is over.

    I’m approaching the last river mile of my life. The feelings are much the same as the last mile on a stream. The last long mile affords me time to make a lot of observations about things. I have strong opinions on a multiplicity of things involving faith, politics, and just life. And I’m energized by engaging the thoughts of others, whether they concur with mine, challenge mine, or just invite whole new possibilities of thought. That’s what this space will be about.

    I invite you to paddle with me. I’ll see you around the next bend in the river.